Camp and home are two separate worlds.

One you live with every day and night. The other you see one time of year. What if you tried mixing the two?

I have gone to a camp called “Camp Takajo” in Naples, Maine. I have gone for five years straight, and I have some experience. I am going to talk about camp friends and home friends and family and how some worlds just can’t be mixed together.

During the year, you see your friends at school, go home, talk with your family, and it continues on and on. Then summer comes along. You go to camp, see your bunkmates, and before you know it, your experience is over and you are back home.

What if your camp friends were there with your home friends? What if they knew each other? What if they were friends?

When you go to camp or anywhere, you always mention actions happening at home. While I am telling my bunkmates a story, they always ask, “Who is this person?” They always think these people are random strangers. Well, if you showed them in real life who everyone is, it would just be awkward for them. It would be like just talking to some random person on the street. You have no clue who anyone is, and it is just awkward.

Also, it risks the expense of lies coming out.

You can lie about something to your camp friends about your home friends or vice versa, and them coming home can risk those lies coming out. Like me saying that I am the best basketball player; I am six feet tall at home but not at camp.

Finally, it could destroy some relationships. My camp friends could think my friends are weird and not want to hang out with me anymore. Or, my home friends could think that my camp friends are weird and also not want to hang out with me.

I once tried mixing the two at my Bar Mitzvah.

A Bar Mitzvah is a Jewish custom for becoming an adult in the eyes of God. I invited my bunkmates and my Westport friends, and a few of each came. I have told each one who the other one is. They said “Hi,” and I helped them greet each other, but didn’t really do anything else. They stood there awkwardly swaying left and right. Then they split separate ways and didn’t see each other at all the rest of the party.

To me, they are my friends. But to them, they’re a group of total random strangers.

Trying to mix the two doesn’t really work. It always ends up in a conundrum. If you try it and it works, good for you. But I recommend not to.